Photo By Scott Sturkol | Judy and Scott Gill of Prairie du Chien, Wis., stand next two 26 World War II-era...... read more read more
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Judy and Scott Gill of Prairie du Chien, Wis., made a special visit to Fort McCoy on Dec. 2 to deliver 26 vintage photos of Army activities around then-Camp McCoy during World War II and before.
Judy first contacted the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office by email on Nov. 17 asking if she could donate some photos.
“Is there a historical museum at Ft McCoy?” Judy wrote in the email. “I have a number of photos from the 1940s that were taken at Fort McCoy that I’d like to donate. Please let me know if you are interested.”
And the interest was definitely there. Public Affairs Specialist Melissa Dubois responded to the Gill email and set up a date and time to have the Gills visit the Fort McCoy History Center to drop off the 26 unique black-and-white photos.
Judy explained how she received the photos.
“I was talking to a woman who said she had a bunch of pictures from Camp McCoy from the 1940s, and she didn’t know what to do with them,” Judy said.
Judy made the connection to get them to Fort McCoy. “I enjoy finding places for these things to go,” she said.
The photos, she said, she believes originated from a collection in McGregor, Iowa.
A few photos predate World War II. For example, there’s three photos that show the old Camp McCoy headquarters, guard house, and officer’s mess of the “Old Camp” of the installation that was located on South Post of present-day Fort McCoy. The photos are from 1940.
Main operations of Camp McCoy switched to the “New Camp” in 1942 after completion of the cantonment area. Not long after the New Camp was established, the many buildings that were located on the Old Camp began to be taken down.
A set of four photos displays camp life at Fort McCoy around the camp motor pool in 1944 with an undetermined month but 1944 was written on the back of each of the photos.
Another set of seven photos shows what appears to be different scenes from a series of training demonstrations around Camp McCoy training areas in June 1944. Three photos show Soldiers with the 304th Infantry completing a bayonet drill. Another photo shows Soldiers completing the “infiltration course.”
Yet another photo shows people visiting displays of captured equipment from the Japanese army. Another photo shows Jeeps that were used for the press corps for an event, and another shows “business men leaving weapons demonstration,” which appears to be in the same vicinity of what is today’s impact area on North Post.
Also in the collection there are five photos taken in La Crosse, Wis., in 1943. It features a parade for War Salvage Day, although no particular date is highlighted for 1943. The pictures do show Soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Division as well as members of the Women’s Army Corps.
According to post history, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) had a presence at Camp McCoy, where members served in support roles such as librarians, statisticians, clerks, and typists during World War II. WACs also served in the Korean War era, with a detachment from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, arriving at Camp McCoy in the early 1950s after completing medical school. Camp McCoy was one of many locations where WACs were active and filling non-combat jobs to allow male Soldiers to focus on combat roles.
Local history also describes how La Crosse participated in national “Salvage for Victory” campaigns during 1943, with specific large-scale collection drives. The efforts orchestrated by the War Production Board to collect critical scrap materials like metal and wastepaper to support the war effort.
Additionally, in November 1943, a significant wastepaper drive took place. Ten trucks and drivers from Camp McCoy assisted 15 Boy Scout troops in collecting paper throughout the city. The La Crosse Ordnance Repair shop also provided trucks for the effort.
Records show the parade was likely a “Salvage for Victory” parade in La Crosse, showcasing the community’s collective spirit and effort.
And one additional photo in the collection, dated May 1, 1944, shows three Soldiers deployed to New Guinea. It’s a photo sent “To Elsie” and signed “From Daddy With Love.” According to the U.S. Army Center for Military History, available at https://history.army.mil, the New Guinea Campaign of World War II took place from January 1943 to December 1944.
“The campaign on New Guinea is all but forgotten except by those who served there,” states the publication “NEW GUINEA, 24 JANUARY 1943–31 DECEMBER 1944” by Edward J. Drea. “Battles with names like Tarawa, Saipan, and Iwo Jima overshadow it. Yet Allied operations in New Guinea were essential to the U.S. Navy’s drive across the Central Pacific and to the U.S. Army’s liberation of the Philippine Islands from Japanese occupation. The remorse-less Allied advance along the northern New Guinea coastline toward the Philippines forced the Japanese to divert precious ships, planes, and men who might otherwise have reinforced their crumbling Central Pacific front.”
And lastly four photos show several Japanese-American Soldiers posing in front of the old courthouse in La Crosse, Wis., in 1944. One of the four photos indicates the Soldiers were with the 34th Infantry Division.
History shows those Soldiers were part of the storied Nisei Soldiers who trained at Camp McCoy in 1943 and later became among the most decorated Soldiers of World War II. The 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 34th Division had Nisei Soldiers from the 100th Infantry Battalion attached to it. These Soldiers volunteered for service in the U.S. Army to prove their loyalty.
Eventually all of the photos will be set up for a display at the Fort McCoy History Center, located in the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area. They’ll also be shared online and with local history organizations to document World War II history in Wisconsin.
Read more about Army history by visiting https://history.army.mil.
Read more about Fort McCoy history by visiting https://home.army.mil/mccoy/about/history, or read the installation’s monthly “This Month in Fort McCoy History” articles. Past articles are available at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/FMPAO.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2025 15:50 |
| Story ID: | 553022 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 7 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, World War II-era photos of McCoy donated to Fort McCoy History Center, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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